Jeffrey Beasley was indicted on charges that he participated in a bribery and kickback scheme that resulted in losses of $84 million from two Detroit pension funds. / U.S. Marshal Service

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

An Alabama businessman says a fraternity brother of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick shook him down for $100,000 cash in a casino, telling him, “Give me the hundred grand, and I can get this done,” according to new court records.

The money would have gone to Kilpatrick’s legal defense fund, which was set up following the text message scandal that drove him from office in 2008.

But businessman Donald Watkins said he didn’t bite.

“I shut it down,” Watkins said in a July deposition filed in federal court. “I had fought off all of the other requests for pay for play, but this one took it to a level that I just found to be offensive.”

Watkins said in the deposition that the person who extorted him was former Detroit Treasurer and Kilpatrick fraternity brother Jeffrey Beasley, who is facing criminal charges in a pension fraud scheme involving bribes and kickbacks. The deposition is part of a civil lawsuit in which two Detroit pension funds are suing Watkins over a failed $30-million airline investment.

In a new court document filed Monday, Watkins alleged that Beasley asked him for a $100,000 cash donation for Kilpatrick’s legal defense fund during a 2008 meeting at an MGM Grand Detroit casino restaurant. At the time, per the transcript, Watkins was pursuing a $15-million loan from the city’s pension funds, and he said Beasley told him he could help because he served on the funds' boards.

But there was a catch, according to the transcript.

“Mr. Beasley’s conversation was that the boards had been very generous to me and that he could be of substantial assistance in getting it moved along, but that I needed to show my appreciation. … I needed to give him $100,000, and he said it was some — for some fund, but he wanted it in cash,” Watkins said in the July transcript. “It was the look and the tone that he gave me that, you know, ‘You give me a hundred grand, you give it to me in cash, we’ve been good to you … and it’s time for you to show your appreciation.’ ”

Watkins said he felt like he was being extorted, but he didn’t give in.

“I didn't allow myself to be put in that kind of box where my trust was to break the law and give a bribe or kickback,” Watkins said in the deposition. “I shut down the conversation. I’d rather lose a company than lose my reputation.”

In 2007, Watkins persuaded the funds to invest $30 million in TradeWinds Airlines, but the company declared bankruptcy after receiving money from the pension funds.

Watkins contends he was the victim of a pay-to-play scheme that certain pension fund trustees pushed upon him, but he refused to participate. He claims trustees asked him for favors such as a flight on his jet and campaign contributions. He also has said in court documents that the pension funds breached loan agreements by wrongfully declaring certain defaults and by taking actions that prevented the performance of the loan agreements.

Beasley is facing criminal charges that accuse him of taking bribes and kickbacks in a scheme that cost two Detroit pension funds $84 million in losses. According to the indictment, the bribes came in all forms: cash, travel, meals, golf clubs, drinks, gambling money, hotel stays, entertainment, Las Vegas concert tickets, limos and private plane flights.

Wally Piszczatowski, Beasley's lawyer, was not readily available for comment today, but has promised a vigorous fight.

“Jeffrey has always maintained his innocence, and there will be a number of witnesses who line up with him at trial to prove his innocence,” Piszczatowski told the Free Press following the February indictment.